Browse Items (43 total)

  • Collection: Historic Bethabara Park Archaeology Collection

Tortoise Shell Beaker

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This reconstructed, delicate redware beaker is decorated in a tortoise shell glaze. The red clay body was coated in white slip and fired. After firing, a mix of copper oxide, manganese, and clear glaze was applied to produce the polychromatic…

Tortoise Shell Mug

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This reconstructed, delicate redware mug is decorated in a tortoise shell glaze. The red clay body was coated in white slip and fired. After firing, a mix of copper oxide, manganese, and clear glaze was applied to produce the polychromatic tortoise…

Pipe Sagger

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This redware pipe sagger fragment is an example of kiln furniture used by Moravian potters. A sagger is a clay container used to hold ceramics while they are fired in a kiln. A sagger protects the pottery inside from open flames and debris. This…

Candle Holder

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This candle holder is made of redware with a brown manganese glaze on the top surfaces. The underside is unglazed, aside for areas where trails of glaze ran down the sides. This piece was thrown on a potter’s wheel by Gottfried Aust.

A number of…

Cream or Milk Pot

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Cream and milk pots were the most commonly produced item in the Wachovia potteries. This style of pottery is commonly known today as a crock. While both cream and milk pots appeared on pottery shop inventories, the elements which distinguished the…

Teacup

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This cup, classified as a teacup by archaeologist Jacqueline Fehon, was recovered from the Krause-Butner Potter site. It is made of white, or kaolin clay, with slight redish mottling and was thrown on a potter’s wheel. The body is quite delicate as…

Tortoise Shell Saucer

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In 1773, William Ellis arrived in Bethabara and offered to teach Gottfried Aust how to make English Staffordshire-style earthenware in exchange for clothing and lodging. Ellis had been the superintendent of John Bartlam’s China Manufactory and…

Large Tortoise Shell Plate

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In 1773, William Ellis arrived in Bethabara and offered to teach Gottfried Aust how to make English Staffordshire-style earthenware in exchange for clothing and lodging. Ellis had been the superintendent of John Bartlam’s China Manufactory and…

Jug

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This redware jug was recovered in the bisque state. It likely broke during the first firing and was never glazed. The body is only .125” thick. The reddish-buff clay is typical of that mined by Aust in Bethabara. A number of similar fragments were…

Slipware Pitcher

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This jug was recovered from the Krause-Butner Potter site by archaeologist Jacqueline R. Fehon. It is made of red clay, and covered with white slip on the interior and exterior. It has been bisque fired, and likely broke before it could be glazed. …